Day 2: Ventura

We caravanned with Steve's family down highway 101. This part of hwy 101 isn't very scenic until you get to San Luis Obispo, but we didn't want to take the time to go down hwy 1, either. We made good time and so we chose to stop again for a picnic lunch in San Luis Obispo. My family used to live here while Dad went to Cal Poly, but that was before my time. We found a great park right down town. We still had food packed, and Beth brought food, also. The whole spread made for and incredible feast. Beth hooked up a street kid with a plate- You should have seen that "little" plate of "picnic" food. I can only assume it was the highest quality food she had received in quite some time!

After recharging with lunch we headed out for the last leg to Ventura. We hit Friday afternoon traffic in Santa Barbara. We lost an hour there, but still made it to the hotel by 3pm, I think. As soon as we arrived Beth and Steph headed to Cousin Rick's to unpack and finish the cake, while Steve and I met up with the rest of the family at the pool. I think Juby and Sophie really impressed everyone with their swimming. They have made big strides with their swimming this summer: neither of them use floaties anymore and they can both swim. Like full on swim! As in: they both just jump in the deep end and swim around. I'm proud. But Juby looks pretty small to be doing that (not to mention Soph), and we got a lot of strange looks and then a lot of attention at the pool.
The Peirpoint Inn was a great place to have the family reunion; it is 100 years old just like Grandpa Stewart would have been that weekend. And it is located right in Ventura, where the family is from. There was nothing formal planned for the first evening, so we grabbed dinner with my cousins (Thanks again, Rick).

On our way back to the Inn, we stopped at Von's (So. Cals Safeway) to get the flowers for the cake the next day. Beth wanted bright pink and orange, so Steph ventured in to find what she could. When she couldn't find quite the right stuff, cousin Della suggested she ask if they had more in the back. Steph asked the young guy working the flower counter. He replied that he had never worked the flower counter, but he would go check. At this point, Juby told me she needed to poop. When this kid says it, she means it. So off we went to the bathroom where Juby proceeded to have some serious diahrrea and then talk loudly about it all the way back to Steph. "Daddy, I need bananas to fix my diahrrea!" she would say. It turns out, the entire time we were gone in the bathroom, the flower kid had been locked in the flower fridge! He had been far enough away Steph couldn't hear his cries for help, but two other customers did and released him from the fridge. He stumbled out looking very cold and a little blue . . .

We then tried to get to bed before it got too late or anyone else suffocated in a refrigerator. End of Day 2.